Doom (film)
Template:Infobox Mugre Doom is a 2005 movie adaptation of the popular Doom series of video games produced by id Software. The movie was released October 21 2005 in the United States, and on December 2 2005 in the United Kingdom.
On February 7th, 2006, the unrated DVD for the Doom movie was officially released. The unrated DVD has a running time of 1 hour 53 minutes, which suggests that 15 additional minutes of footage was added to the unrated DVD release.
A movie based on the series has been widely expected since the first game's original release in 1993. In 1994 or 1995, id Software sold Doom movie rights to two movie studios, reportedly Universal Pictures and Columbia Pictures, but the rights expired apparently due to a lack of timely production. For the next eight or nine years, the movie project lingered in development hell. In 2002, it was reported that Warner Brothers acquired live action movie rights to Doom from id Software. Sometime in 2003, Warner Brothers lost the rights, and they were subsequently given to Universal Pictures; Universal got the movie moved into production in 2004.
There has been a lot of criticism offered against the movie on message boards. For instance, on movie review websites such as the Internet Movie Database, many claim that this movie has failed, just like, in their opinion, all other video game to movie translations. This is because Hollywood's attempts to give video games more mainstream appeal usually backfire, through excessive "watering down," abbreviation, or unwarranted "enhancements." Thusfar, such criticism has been arguably substantive, for the movie omits or redefines traditional supernatural themes with purely secular themes, such as genetic experimentation and psychological evolution, which has led many fan to liken the plot as "Resident Evil in space". Many speculate that these changes, ordered by certain executives at Universal, are due to fear of possible negative reactions by the public, especially from Christian groups (ironically, the original Doom is a Christian allegory). But, as with the release of Doom 3, the controversy over this movie will remain, especially between hardcore and casual Doom fans.
In a recent interview with executive producer John Wells, he stated that a second Doom movie could be created if the first is a success in the box office. Ticket sales for the opening weekend totaled more than 15.3 million USD, but promptly dropped down to approximately $4.2 million, which mystified Universal executives.
The basic plot of the movie is quite similar to Aliens in that a small group of space marines go to investigate a deserted facility on another planet, and do battle with vicious creatures until only a few are left who must fight to escape alive.
The film has been rated R by the MPAA for strong violence/gore and language. The DVD release of Doom was unrated.
Doom 2
A sequel is being discussed and the creators of the first Doom movie say that they can think of a way for The Rock to return. Karl Urban and Rosamund Pike are already signed on and The Rock wants to sign up.
Plot overview
The film begins on Earth, when a team of elite Marines are deployed to Mars, through the teleportation device called the "Ark." Their mission is simple: to investigate a disturbance occurring at the Union Aerospace Corporation's (UAC) Mars research facility. However, this simple mission becomes more complicated when the team finds Dr. Carmack, who is disturbed to the point of tearing off his own ear. The Marines continue to explore the facility, encountering strange creatures intent on killing them. One such being, an "imp," succeeds in slaying one of the soldiers, but is promptly captured and returned to Dr. Grimm, a researcher seeking scientific data. From blood samples from a group of hostile creatures, it is determined that their genetic makeup has been altered by the addition of a 24th chromosome, which turns humans into a "superhuman" or a "monster" depending on whether the person is "good" or "evil". Consequently, this chromosome is classified as an "infection," which is spread by the projectile tongues of those infected.
Through multiple attacks by the imps, the troop is reduced to four members: Sarge, Reaper (brother of Dr. Grimm), The Kid, and Duke, along with Dr. Grimm. Further they realize that despite their best efforts, a larger monster, "Hell Knight" (presumed to be the original) escapes to Earth through the "Ark." However, before leaving, Sarge takes the Bio Force Gun (BFG) a.k.a 'Big Fucking Gun' and Dr. Grimm brings a sample of the Chromosome 24 serum. Further, it is revealed that the researchers unintentionally created the imps by giving a human some of the serum, which was extracted from the remains of an ancient alien civilization on Mars.
On Earth, the group finds the UAC facility full of bodies, thereby causing Sarge to order that all corpses be shot to prevent any from rising. But, the Kid finds a group of living, non-infected humans and reports this to Sarge. He argues that the order should be rescinded, but Sarge responds by saying violating the CO's order is punishable by death thus shooting him for insubordination. The group continues through the facility, until Duke is killed during a major assault by zombies. In addition to Duke's death and sarge being dragged away by the zombies Reaper is hit by a rebounding bullet. Consequently, to save his life, Dr. Grimm injects Reaper with Chromosome24. This turns him into a "superhuman," thereby healing almost instantly, while endowing him with incredible strength and speed.
Following Reaper's change, the movie takes on its first-person shooter perspective strongly resembling Doom 3 in terms of environment, creatures and gameplay.
In the words of Karl Urban, the actor who plays Reaper:
- "In some ways, it makes cinematic history in that, for the first time, the audience becomes the hero of the film."
- "When we go into FPS, the audience is doing the rampage, the audience is doing the work and that is so cool. It’s insane!"
While slaying the remaining monsters, Reaper is attacked by Pinky, a mutated UAC Ark attendant and cyborg, whose bottom half of his body was replaced by robotics and wheels due to major turbulance during ark travel — his upper body went to one galaxy and his lower body went to another. However, Reaper successfully uses the iconic chainsaw to defeat him by drilling the joint of his body to the wheel. At the exit of the facility, Reaper finds a large mass of bodies and a blue burning hole in the wall, which was caused by a BFG blast. Near this hole, Reaper encounters Dr. Grimm lying on the floor unconcious and Sarge walking from the front. After Dr. Grimm escapes Sarge's clutches, the two Marines face off, with Reaper dodging a BFG shot and hunting for Sarge and shooting at him. The two then start hand to hand combat and fight for a while with hard hits. They then go upstairs a little and John then engages Sarge in fisticuffs. Sarge breaks out and wraps a metal pole around his arm. Sarge stabs some through Reaper's hand, but it rips out after a long fight. Reaper prevails by throwing the now-demonic Sarge into the "Ark," along with a ST grenade, sealing the fate of both Sarge and the UAC Mars facility... for now.
Characters
Marines
Sarge (The Rock): The squad leader. Sarge is a professional soldier who appears to have a good relationship with the men in his squad. However, his unquestioning loyalty to the corrupt UAC and insistence on following orders no matter the consequences ultimately leads him to commit war crimes. Fate: Blown up by "Reaper".
John "Reaper" Grimm (Karl Urban): The protagonist. A former scientist who joined the military after the death of his parents on Mars. Following his conscience, he ultimately ends up opposing the UAC and Sarge. Fate: Survives.
Goat: A quiet, extremely religious man who mutilates himself whenever he breaks a Commandment. Fate:Infected by a mutated Dr. Willits, turned into a zombie, then killed himself before he could turn.
Duke: A smart-aleck who ends up hitting on Samantha, who seems to return his interest. Fate:Pulled through a steel grate (presumably by imps) near the end of the movie.
Portman: A perverted degenerate obsessed with sex and drugs, and the source of the film's "odious comic relief". Fate:Attacked by an imp, then accidentally killed by Sarge with the BFG.
Destroyer: The squad's stoic heavy weapons specialist. Fate: Destroyer dies in hand-to-hand combat with Hell Knight, but succeeds in giving the monster an impressive beating.
Mac: Left behind to defend the Ark, Fate: Mac is decapitated by Hell Knight.
The Kid: The newest member of the squad, the Kid is green and inexperienced, much to Sarge's chagrin. Also secretly addicted to drugs to keep his newbie fear in control. Fate: Shot by Sarge when he disobeys order.
Civilians
Dr. Samantha Grimm (Rosamund Pike): A scientist on Mars, and John Grimm's sister. Conducting archeological research on the Martian civilization, she is assigned by UAC to accompany the marines and retrieve Dr. Carmack's research data.
Pinky: A nervous technician on Mars assigned to coordinate the squad's communications. Pinky has no lower body and is attached to a cybernetic wheel-chair, due to a teleportation accident while using the Ark ("He went to one galaxy, his ass went to another"). Near the end of the film, Pinky is turned into Doom's signature "Pinky Demon".
Dr. Carmack: The base's chief scientist, Carmack's unethical experimentations in genetic engineering ultimately lead to the death of everyone on Mars. The demon attack leaves him catatonic, and he ultimately transforms into a mindless monster. An obvious reference to John Carmack.
Dr. Willits: Another scientist who ultimately ends up altered and killed. An obvious reference to Tim Willits.
Hell Knight: A psycopathic mass murderer experimented on by Dr. Carmack, he is transformed into the "Hell Knight" and proceeds to rampage through the base, turning the scientists into imps and zombies. Killed by Reaper during the First Person Shooter sequence.
Weapons
- BFGv3.14 File:BFG.jpg
- An Assault Rifle that is very similar to the advanced XM8 Carbine File:Assault Rifles.jpg
Trivia
- All the team's weaponry besides the chaingun, BFG, and The Rock's Desert Eagle are made by Heckler & Koch; the rifles being dressed up G36Ks, and "The Kid's" SMG being a G36C with the folding stock removed. The handgun, shown in only a few scenes, is an HK USP.
- Todd Hollenshead, CEO of id Software, was heavily involved in the movie's production and development from the very start. He reviewed the script that was used in the movie and approved it.
- One of the weapons present in the movie is an earlier model of the BFG9000 (renamed the "Bio Force Gun" for the movie (to make it sound more serious), though Sarge does state that it is a "Big Fucking Gun"; this weapon has been a staple in the Doom series).
- In the movie Sarge uses the hand of a dead scientist called Patricia Tallman to get access to the BFG. Patricia Tallman is also the name of an actor that played the role as Lyta Alexander in the science fiction series Babylon 5. Her character played a key role as a telepathic weapon in fighting an enemy called the Shadows whose homeworld was Za'ha'dum (pronounced doom).
- Many monsters from the video games make appearances in the film, including a Pinky Demon, a Hell Knight, several Imps, and many Zombies. A Cacodemon was planned for, but ultimately cut from, the final film.
- There is a single 5-minute sequence in the film that was shot entirely in the first-person perspective, emulating the look of the games. The classic theme of the Doom game was used in this sequence, but was remixed into a more Heavy-Metal style.
- The origin of the creatures is now different from the Doom games, rather than coming from Hell, the monsters are created through gene therapy by the UAC which mutates humans.
- A 1 minute 57 second theatrical trailer was released by Universal Pictures for the Doom movie, available on the official Doom movie website. It reveals that Olduvai station is a Union Aerospace Corporation (UAC) research facility located on Mars, but does not mention teleportation research. Instead, the trailer explicitly mentions genomic research, possibly belying the claim of a hellish origin for the monsters. It should be noted, however, that genomic research was mentioned as being conducted upon demons in Doom 3.
- One of the Mars scientists are named Dr. Carmack, and another is named Dr. Willits, references to id Software staff John Carmack, and Tim Willits respectively.
- This is the first and, as of 2006, only R rated film that The Rock has starred in.
- The elevator used to end the Doom levels was also used to enter the Ark at the start and the end of the movie.
- The sound played when a door has been opened in the Doom games was also used in this movie.
- The line "let God sort them out" is a reference to a catchphrase from the Duke Nukem game series, one of many series inspired by the original Doom. The character named Duke might also be a reference to Duke Nukem.
- Watching the movie before John "Reaper" was injected with the Chromosome, most fans and audience would believe The Rock was the Doomguy. The Rock was actually also the main "boss".
- In the animal test lab, where animals were being tested with the Chromosome, some bulldogs were used as specimens. Most viewers would believe, that later on in the film, the bulldog will turn into the Pinky Demon. It was actually the Pinky cyborg ("his ass went to another galaxy" - movie quote) that turned into it. The creature looked almost exactly as it did in Doom 3, the only major difference being wheels instead of mechanical legs.
- A line uttered by Sarge near the end of the movie, "Last man standing, Reaper.", may be a reference to the professional wrestling match type.
Wells admitted in an interview that "many" video game movie adaptations had "sucked." He revealed that the crew was able to get "a lot of financial support from Universal" and that it wasn't "done on the cheap." Wells also revealed that the Doom movie would have a sequence shot in a first-person perspective because "Doom without that would be a miscarriage of justice!"
Wells also revealed that "we were all very concerned that we make sure that it was exactly the kind of experience that we [the crew] remembered so fondly from the game: turning the lights off at midnight, cranking it up and scaring the hell out of yourself!"
Wells further stated that there is a balance between CGI and prosthetics in the Doom movie, and he, for the first time as a producer, admitted that "we didn't wanna rely on the CGI. Those effects still haven't quite got to the level where you fully believe it - certainly not for long periods of time," and that the crew used Stan Winston's Creature Shop and that his work is only "enhanced with CGI." He also admitted that "if you rely too much on CGI it can look cheesy: it doesn't quite work. It'll get there, but it's not there yet."
Wells also stated that the crew insisted that the Doom movie be made into an R-rated movie and that he didn't "think it was possible to do a PG-13 version — and that's been the mistake made by a couple of other computer game movies," and that "a lot of studios that didn't want to do it. But we made a conscious decision that we'd prefer not to make it any other way."
Wells also revealed that if this first Doom movie is successful, a second one could be made, and he revealed that "we certainly have some ideas for the next one, if there is gonna be one. We'll have to wait and see: the audience will have to tell us..."
According to the box office, the film made $56 million as a total for both overseas and North American release. The possibility of a sequel now depends on DVD sales.
Criticisms
The following points have been severely criticized by most who have played the Doom games or know about the Doom games. These are believed to contribute to the film's box-office failure and ire of fans:
- The origin of the "demons" is no longer Hell (nor is it implied that Hell itself exists), but rather genetic experiments. Many fans thought this was a cop-out and turned the film into "just another zombie movie".
- The idea of whether a test subject becomes a monster or evolves to a superhuman being (like Grimm) depends on whether he or she is genetically good or evil, and has been criticized as ludicrous.
- Iconic weaponry such as the BFG, chaingun and the chainsaw are not used much. The BFG fires only 3 shots (one of which is off camera), the chaingun fires for about 10 seconds in the movie, and the chainsaw is only used for one scene. A shotgun is only fired 3 times, and what appears to be a plasma rifle is never fired. The explosion of a BFG round also appeared more like a giant ball of corrosive mucus rather than a massive green explosion, as in the games.
- The monsters themselves were inaccurate and/or sparse-it was expected the zombies would be carrying guns, the Imps and Hell Knights would throw balls of energy, and that the other monsters in the game would appear.
- The first-person sequence is only 5 minutes long, despite the original prediction of 3/4 of the movie being first-person.
- Failure to capture the tense, scary, and foreboding atmosphere of the game Doom 3 (which the movie is supposedly based on) and the run-and-gun action of the original game.
Production history
- November 27 2003, Computer Gaming World printed an article on their website regarding the Doom movie. It states that Warner Brothers is indeed working on the Doom movie and has placed it on the fast track. A revised script was submitted to id Software and approved; John Wells (producer of ER) and Lorenzo Bonaventura (who introduced The Matrix to Warner Brothers) have signed on to work on the Doom movie. Concept art and storyboards have been drawn by Federico D'Alessandro, who has worked on various movies, music videos, and video game covers and advertisements.
- May 15 2004, the Associated Press (AP) released a news article regarding video game to movie adaptations that can be found here: Hollywood Interest in Video Games Grows that mentions the Doom movie. Here's an excerpt that mentions the Doom movie: "Soon, more blockbuster game franchises, such as Halo and Doom, are expected to become the basis of movies."
- June 2 2004, Variety reported that Warner Brothers has lost the rights to the Doom movie and Universal Studios has acquired rights to the Doom movie and Variety confirms that the Doom movie will be based on Doom 3.
- June 4 2004, IMDb Pro reported that Warner Brothers has lost the rights to the Doom movie and that Universal Studios has picked up the rights also that Enda McCallion has been signed on as the director.
- August 9 2004, A Doom 3 article in an issue of Time Magazine mentions that Universal is set to film the Doom movie in Prague in the winter of 2004-2005.
- August 15 2004, The Hollywood Reporter reported that John Wells Productions is currently in pre-production for the Doom movie.
- August 18 2004, a website, Box Office Prophets, made the Doom movie project their movie of the day and they list the release date for the Doom movie, August 5 2005. The article also confirms that Universal has Doom on a production schedule of Winter 2004-2005 in Prague's Barrandov Studios. The article can be found here: Doom. The planned release date was mentioned as August 5 2005.
- August 10 2004, The Hollywood Reporter released an article that mentioned release dates for 8 movies and the third movie listed was the Doom movie. It states that Doom will have a wide release on August 5 2005.
- September 15 2004, major news has been revealed by both Variety and The Hollywood Reporter on the Doom movie. Karl Urban has been cast for the Doom movie as the star, John Grimm, a leader of a special ops team. It has been revealed that he will dealing not only with alien demons but also the organization known as the United Aerospace Corp. that is responsible for the death of his parents. It has also been revealed that Enda McCallion has dropped out of the project and Polish director Andrzej Bartkowiak has signed on to be the director. It has also been revealed that production will start in Mid-October with a August 5 2005 release date. Also noted is that Universal Pictures is talking to The Rock regarding a role in the Doom movie.
- September 22 2004, The Hollywood Reporter reported that Universal Pictures has cast Rosamund Pike opposite of Karl Urban as a scientist named Samantha.[1]
Awards and nominations
One nomination:
- Worst Actor (The Rock)
Notes
- ^ "'Doom's' day for Pike with Universal Pics". September 22 2004.
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External links
- Doom at IMDb
- Official site
- Movie trailers
- Movie Trailer
- Doom @ the SoundtrackINFO project
- A report from Comic-Con with information from a panel of the cast and crew
- An Interview with Karl Urban about the film
- An Interview with Doom Executive Producer John Wells
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